In a city riddled with gun violence, Newark officials and the anti-violence group Stop Shootin’ Music hosted the city’s first toy gun exchange today.

Booker said the nearby gunfire was from a man accidentally shooting and injuring himself, and that the fact it took place near a children’s toy gun exchange illustrated just how important such initiatives had become to curbing the cycle of violence.

Music played at Mildred Helms Park as kids and parents gathered. Booker and several city council members praised Stop Shootin’ Music’s crusade.

"If you give kids guns, guess what they’re going to do? They’re going to shoot it," said Peter Langman, a psychologist in Allentown, Pa., and author of "Why Kids Kill: Inside the Mind of School Shooters."

"However, linking that to behavior when they’re 15 or 25 is very difficult," he said.

Booker acknowledged there is no evidence linking childhood gun play to violent behavior later. "I don’t think it’s going to solve the problem in a direct way ... it’s a rallying cry."

Theodore Petti, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said children are more at risk of acting violently if they are bullied, abused, neglected, in gang or use drugs or alcohol.

Kids use toy guns and weapons, he said, to role play and develop social and conflict resolution skills.

"But sticks, pieces of Lego, anything can be considered a gun and is used as a gun," Petti said.